Watch 'Suicided' Phil Schneider on Alien Underground Bases

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Phil Schneider was a purported ex-government geologist and structural engineer with aerospace applications involved in building top-secret, deep underground military bases with 17 years of experience working on government black projects and carrying a level 3 security clearance (Rhyolite 38 Clearance). He was also a self taught metallurgist and co-invented methods used in shape charge explosive research to facilitate the construction of such deep underground bases....
Source: Above Top Secret

However, Phil Schneider did a lot of talking (like in the videos below) and ended up dead. It was thought to be a suicide. But was Schneider suicided?

His wife thinks that he was murdered.

Why?

1. There was no suicide note.

2. Philip always told his friends and relatives, that if he ever "committed suicide" you would know that he had been murdered.

3. From a number of sources, including his taped lectures (video and audio), and statements to his friends, and the borrowing of a 9mm gun, Philip felt that he and his family were being threatened and were in danger because of his lecutres.

4. All of his lecture materials, alien metals, higher math books, photographs of UFO's coming out of the Operation Crossroad A-Bomb, notes for his book on the alien agenda, were missing. (Everything else in the apartment was still there, including gold coins, wallet with hundreds of dollars, jewelry, mineral specimens, etc.)

5. No coroner ever came out to his apartment after his body was found (against Oregon Law) - and a police investigation never took under consideration that items were missing from his apartment - it was considered a suicide, plain and simple

6. The medical examiner took blood and urine samples at the autopsy but REFUSED to analyse them, saying that the county would not "waste their money on a suicide". Although I was assurred that the samples would be kept for 12 months, when I asked for these samples to be sent to an independant lab 11 months later they were "missing" and presumed "destroyed".

7. Philip had missing fingers on his left hand, and limited motion in his shoulders. I believe that it was physically impossible for Philip to have held the rubber hose in his left hand with missing fingers and then wrap the hose three times with shoulders that had limited motion. In order to end up where his body was, he had to sit on the edge of his bed, wrap the hose around his neck, slowly and painfully strangle to death, and fallen head first into a wheel chair.

8. Philip was an expert in chemicals and his own medical needs. He had mutiple pills at hand that could have ended his life quickly and painlessly. He also had a 9mm gun that he had borrowed to protect himself. Why strangle himself in such an unusual manner?

9. Philip was very religious, and did not believe in suicide. He had intense chronic pain all of the time I knew him. At the time of his death, he was on disability, had a housekeeper, and had cancer. The operation to help him with his back pain did not aleviate the pain and he had brittle bone syndrome (osteoperosis). He struggled every day, not to die, but to live. He felt that these lectures he gave was making a difference, and was looking forward to giving more. In fact he was scheduled for another lecture tour that started 1/16/96 in Tampa, Florida. He had just found a friend who was going to help him write a book about the New World Order, and he was enjoying his time with his daughter.

10. Philip was undergoing "injections" of "Beta Serone" every week in an experiment to stop his mutiple sclerosis. After his death I contacted the only agency that conducted these experiments to obtain his medical record (OHSU). They had never heard of him, and he was not a part of their experiments. This would suggest people unknown were injecting him on a weekly basis with an unknown substance. He often times called me after these "shots" to tell me that he was too sick for his daughter to come and visit. I believe that the shots that Philip thought were being given to him to help him back to health, were actually being given to him to make him sick.

11. Philip was seen with an "unknown blonde haired woman" for several months before his death. Several times this same individual was seen or talked about and her mysterious presence only leads one to wonder if she had anything to do with his "suicide".

12. Several people with psychic abilities have indicated that Philip did not commit suicide, but was murdered (some say by 5 people: 4 men and 1 woman, 4 directly and one by taking out a "contract".

Reasoning why Phillips Ex-Wife Thinks he was Murdered

So was Phil Schneider a mentally disturbed former government geologist or the real deal? It is well known that Dulce New Mexico has some strange goings on.

For more on Dulce and Phil Schneider see

Dulce NM Underground Base Special : Alien Firefight, Strange Death of Phil Schneider, Videos

Grant

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Noted Psychologist Carl Jung and Swami Pavitrananda: A Conversation

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I think Jung's observation in the article below that much of Western Psychology was based on lower human instincts is correct.

Mainly psychological theories were based on these problems because that is where many of the complaints were coming from.

From the various psychopathologies, theories were developed and much of psychology was based on this until later humanistic theories began to emerge.

Grant

Swami Pavitrananda, a scholarly saint of the Vedanta order, worked in New York for many years until his death in 1977. Once he had an interesting conversation with the well-known psychologist C. J. Jung. The entire conversation was first published in the journal Voice of India under the title An Evening with Professor D. J. Jung [ see Global Vedanta Vol. 1, No. 1] Jung approved the ensuing article given below, prior to its later publication.

In the publication, Pavitrananda said to Professor Jung:

Excerpted from Meta Religion, "Hindu Philosophy of the Mind and Consciousness"

Some psychoanalysts try to prove that the only concern of man is sex. But man is more than food and raiment; man is even more than food and sex. I was glad to read some years ago wherein you stated that the dominating factor in man's life is spiritual yearning. I was surprised that you could say that. (Professor Jung) replied, "yes, I feel that way. But because 'I say that
I have to pay a heavy price, people are against me, they criticize me, they write all manner of things against me. I am fighting against great odds -- all alone.

".The fact is", said the professor in an animated tone, "many of the psychoanalysts come into contact with people of gross materialistic minds, whose only concern in life is sense pleasure, people who are morbid in their natures, what higher things can you expect from the analysis of such minds?

".You see [continued] the professor, "in the west religion has failed and men can no longer think in terms of spirit. Religion has become the garment of hypocrisy and insincerity. As a result, everywhere people shudder at the name of religion and they cannot think of spiritual matters, Some say "Bolshevism will be fit substitute for religion, while some, turning to psychology, lose themselves in the dark alleys and blind lanes of the underworld of the mind."

Since this conversation took place nearly sixty years ago, Prof. Jung's views about psychology have gained acceptance and admiration from an increasing number of academics all over the world.

Nevertheless, this conversation symbolizes the difference between Hindu and Western psychology. While, generally speaking, Western psychology tends to not have much relevance to religion, Hindu psychology is directly connected with religion. Its aim is to help people experience God or the indwelling Divine Spirit. The materials of Hindu psychology are scattered all over the scriptures and religious philosophies of Hinduism. Most contributors have come from Hindu Sages and Saints. The great Sage Pantanjali, who lived around 150 BC, may be called the first renowned Hindu psychologist of ancient India. Yet before
Guatama Buddha, who lived nearly 2,600 years ago, Hindus had definite and practical ideas about applied psychology.....

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Watch Interdimmensional / Alien Life Forms in Hinduism

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There is little doubt in my mind, that multidimensional or even perhaps Alien Beings can have an impact on our consciousness and being.

These other life forms are among us.

Grant

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A Better Life Through the Golden Rule: Religious or Not

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It amazes me that although some of my students attend Church they tell me they are not taught about the Golden Rule.

Once while presenting a subject to a class, I was talking to my 8th graders and I mentioned the Golden Rule and asked the students to tell me what it meant. To my surprise, a great deal of the students raised their hands.

I asked them how they knew about it?

They responded that it was I that had taught them.

Then it dawned on me that I nearly always bring it up when I speak to the students. Even if I am talking about drugs, suicide prevention, violence, bullying, etc. I try to make sure I bring up the Golden Rule as a way for the students to live a better life.

Those students had heard it from me over the last couple of years and they had remembered.

Grant

By Jai Ghorpade

The Golden Rule is a universally recognized moral principle that is found, in different combinations of words, in all religions and in the writings of the great philosophers. Some examples: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Jesus).

“This is the sum of Dharma: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you” (Hinduism).

Source: Sign On San Diego

“May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me” (Plato), “Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you (Socrates).

Although the general thrust of these statements is the same, there are different rationales as to why you should treat others as you would have them treat you. One rationale is found in the age-old “Norm of Reciprocity.” This norm consists of two principles: equivalency – the expectation of a response in kind or benefit for benefit, “I give in order that you may give,” and retribution, or the right of the injured party to pay back in kind – an eye for an eye.

The Golden Rule, on the other hand, is envisioned as a covenant where all parties behave as if they were extensions of each other. Equivalency and retribution are off the table. Why should anybody participate in such a scheme? There are religious and secular, or rationalist, rationales. The best known religious rationale on the subject is found in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. After urging his followers to treat others as they themselves would like to be treated, he went on to say: “Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Statements similar to the Golden Rule that are not tied to any religion are found in the writings of philosophers. The secular rationale is that the quality of the emotional climate will be enriched, and collective gains will be higher, if individuals obligate themselves to go beyond seeking equivalency and retribution to mutual caring in their relationships. Rewards and punishments in the secular world are of an earthly nature.

The relative “validity” of these rationales cannot be established empirically. The rule has to be accepted as a philosophy of life rather than as a blueprint for action. As such, it challenges us, in daily living and when faced with difficult situations with moral implications (e.g. getting a divorce, firing an employee, selling a used car, dealing with a breach of contract) to learn to put ourselves in the position of our adversaries and to experience how the world looks from their perspective. Given the state the world, this seems like an excellent idea. Assuming a willingness to go in that direction, here is a set of personal qualities that can serve as the foundation for being able to treat others as you would have them treat you in today’s context:

1) Introspection: How well do you understand your own feelings, biases, values, beliefs and motives? Are you ready to “treat thy neighbor as thyself” regardless of the person’s race, religion, gender, age, physical appearance or sexual orientation?

2) Compassion: Do you have sympathy for the suffering of others? Do you have the humility to apologize and to make amends with those you have hurt or treated disrespectfully?

3) Consideration: Are you willing to take the other person’s problems and constraints into account when deciding to respond to a broken promise or other negative action?

4) Empathy: Do you have the ability to identify with and understand somebody else’s feelings and difficulties? Are you willing and able to listen with an open mind, especially to those with whom you disagree?

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Alien Life Supported by the Qur'an: Not Only Jinn and Angelic Beings

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This video commentator points to verses in the Qur'an that go beyond Jinn and Angelic beings.

Grant

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The Universe is Teeming with Life and Civilzations, Many Are Visiting our World

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Opinion piece by George Filer

Science is catching up with my views that the universe is filled with life and other civilizations. UFOs continue to be sighted in unusually large numbers indicating the world is under scrutiny by watchers from other realms. Even the Theory of Evolution is in crisis as the molecules of life are being found in space and even on our own moon. Additionally, water is confirmed on Mars and our moon; and liquid is found on Saturn’s Moon Titan. Over three hundred planets are proven to exist and a nearby "Super Earth" may have oceans and a thick atmosphere.

Source: All News Web
These new scientific discoveries are making it more likely that we are being visited by a Cosmic Species who are sometimes called aliens, guardians, tricksters, angels, or extraterrestrials. Every week people around the world capture better photos, video and radar images of their craft.

My research indicates there are various alien civilizations with different intentions and motivations visiting Earth. It is my opinion the ancient writings give us an excellent understanding of our visitors. Although the visitation is often been interpreted in religious terms, the data is essentially truthful and often the best we have. Most religions agree in the concept of Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness, good angels and evil ones, good aliens and bad. Perhaps it would be useful at this time of year to step back and look at our world through alien eyes. It is quite possible that our wars, terrorism, and crime are considered a serious threat to other life forms.

A case can be made that the visitors sent messengers called angels to help establish a peaceful humanity by providing a moral code to live by that has its basis in the Ten Commandments, encouraging us to love one another. The foundations of western culture are both Judaism and Christianity while Islam is prominent in many other parts of the world. Islam believes in essentially the same Ten Commandments and all the great prophets of Judaism and Christianity. Islam honors Jesus Christ, as second only to the Prophet Mohammed himself.

Scientist Dr. Carl Sagan in his book, "Intelligent Life in the Universe" indicated Earth had likely been visited by extraterrestrials. He states: "Sumer was an early--perhaps the first -civilization the contemporary sense on the planet Earth. It was founded in the forth millennium B.C. or earlier. We don't know where the Sumerians came from. I feel that if the Sumerian civilization is depicted by the descendents of the Sumerians themselves to be of non-human origin, the relevant legends should be examined carefully." (page 456) Dr. Sagan goes on to ask, "What might an advanced extraterrestrial civilization want from us?

Perhaps the angels according to many ancient scriptures were sent here to give mankind a moral code to live by before we are allowed to visit other civilizations.

George Filer is a leading UFO researcher. His website is www.nationalufocenter.com

Could Unethical Humans Be Assisting Unethical ETs?

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This article offers some very good conjecture and does point to the fact that super wealthy families involved in the Slave trade still are in positions of super wealth.

Could these ethically challenged families have something to do with ET activities?

That may be a bit of a stretch. But we can say that the ethically challenged super wealthy are spreading a lot of misery, with or without the help of ET.

Grant

Elites associated with Slave Trade linked to UFO disclosure issue

by Ed Komarek

In the article called, “Targeting UFO/ET Corporation X”, I had suggested that one area of the alien resource trade that “Corporation X” might find highly profitable could be considered a modern alien version of the slave trade that flourished in the British American colonies and later in the American Republic . The sometimes legal and sometimes illegal slave trade of the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s was immensely profitable especially to those slavers operating out of the North Eastern United States. LINK

Source: The Canadian National Newspaper

What is not widely known is that many powerful American family fortunes of today have their roots in this infamous slave trade. Could it be possible that some of these same families and their international counterparts again are involved and profiting from a trade in biological materials derived from victimized alien abductees?

In the past the black African leadership sold their own people to the enslaving more technologically advanced European and American slavers as trade goods for metal weapons, cookware, ornaments and rum. Could the reasoning and justification be the same today as in the past, “if you can’t beat them join them”? Is history repeating itself, but this time the technologically sophisticated and unethical race is extraterrestrial.

I would like to point out that the evidence suggests that a wide range of alien species with a wide range of agendas, motivation and ethics are visiting this planet. My concern in this article is with one or more alien species that seem to be technologically superior to us but on about the same ethical level or worse.

It would be natural for those secretive manipulative earth humans with a less ethical bent to become involved with less ethical alien types for trade and material benefit while brushing off overtures by more ethical races. This issue is controversial amongst abductee investigators. LINK or, LINK

Could one dark aspect of trade in extraterrestrial resources through, “Corporation X” or otherwise, be a kind of slave trade where some unethical humans are cooperating and assisting in a super-secret programme of alien-human hybridization (or cloning of humans) designed in part to infiltrate into Earth societies.....MORE

Jewish Mystic's (1897) Frightening Predictions for 2010

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Actually Imber's predictions seem pretty solid but the one that is a bit off is the one about Kansas being progressive and seceding from the States.

Of interest is that Naftali Hertz Imber is the author to the words of the Israeli National Anthem.

Oh and 2010 doesn't look so good if Imber's predictions are close to being true.

Grant


Written by Rick Hellman, Editor

At least one of Naftali Hertz Imber’s predictions for 2010, as recorded in an 1897 Los Angeles Times article headlined “America’s Destiny,” was spot-on: “The Californian wine will be famous all over the world, as the French champagne is at present.”

The part about Kansas seceding from the union and leading a second American civil war that shifts the map of the world? Not likely to be borne out, says Naftali Imber’s descendent who lives in Kansas, attorney Steve Imber.

Source: The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

A peripatetic poet, mystic and alcoholic, Naftali Hertz Imber is best known today as the author of the words to Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” (See below)

But by the late 19th century, he was traipsing around the Golden State, calling himself the “Apostle of the Kabbalah and Emissary of the 37 masters” and writing articles in the LA Times as “Prof. Naphtali Herz Imber” when he wasn’t making its news columns for being drunk and disorderly.

Imber was the subject of an Oct. 15 story in Tablet magazine by Rutgers University Yiddish scholar Eddie Portnoy, who brought Imber’s 1897 predictions back to light.

Apocalypse now?

“In the year 2010, America will face a great period of hard times, which will give birth to important events, giving history another direction and changing the map of all the countries on the face of the globe,” Imber wrote in 1897.

Hard times, check. And the next part, about the advent of solar power, seems prescient, too, if a bit overstated. (It will “supply the force to drive the locomotives and vehicles of all descriptions …”)

But the ensuing section, about Kansas, seems, well, far-fetched.

“In the year above mentioned, an election for Governor will take place in Kansas State,” Naftali Imber wrote. “The campaign will be a hot one, and all the eyes of the Union will be directed to the development of the struggle in that State, which will be regarded as the most radical and progressive of the United States. A powerful Governor will be elected, who will be an exact type of the State itself; every inch a progressive radical. The shibboleth of the Kansas Legislature will be; ‘The West for Westerners,’ and in a fit of patriotic and progressive excitement the Kansas State will secede from the Union. Missouri and Illinois will follow suit directly afterward, and at a convention of all the Governors of the Western States, which will be held in Chicago, they will declare themselves disunited from the Union.

“The most disastrous war that the world has ever seen will ensue. Over 4,000,000 soldiers will be arrayed against one another in the open field.”

Imber goes on to predict that the South will ally itself with the West, and together they will defeat the East. Later on, he writes, the East, or Atlantic Empire, will go to war with Canada, while the Western Empire will go to war with Mexico.

The writer Portnoy couldn’t resist this quip in his Tablet article:

“Farfetched as Imber’s prophecy seems, its major question right now seems to be how quickly Kansas can become ultra-liberal.”

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Watch BBC Says there was No Al Qaeda Organization (an American Creation)

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Al Qaeda = the base + i arabic word = the data base al qaeda is basically just a database of names of jihads who fought the commies in afghanistan in the 80s ! pass this on.

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16 Super-Ships Cause as Much Pollution as all World's Cars: Millions Die from High Sulfur Fuel

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Doesn't seem like anyone is that upset over these super polluters and the danger it causes to life, earth, and climate.

Maybe that is because there is not enough money to be made in correcting the problem.

Grant

Last week it was revealed that 54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen.

But that is not the only scandal in the shipping world. Today award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use.

Source: Daily Mail.co.uk

We've all noticed it. The filthy black smoke kicked out by funnels on cross-Channel ferries, cruise liners, container ships, oil tankers and even tugboats.

It looks foul, and leaves a brown haze across ports and shipping lanes. But what hasn’t been clear until now is that it is also a major killer, probably causing thousands of deaths in Britain alone.

As ships get bigger, the pollution is getting worse. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars.

Because of their colossal engines, each as heavy as a small ship, these super-vessels use as much fuel as small power stations.

But, unlike power stations or cars, they can burn the cheapest, filthiest, high-sulphur fuel: the thick residues left behind in refineries after the lighter liquids have been taken. The stuff nobody on land is allowed to use.

Thanks to decisions taken in London by the body that polices world shipping, this pollution could kill as many as a million more people in the coming decade – even though a simple change in the rules could stop it.

There are now an estimated 100,000 ships on the seas, and the fleet is growing fast as goods are ferried in vast quantities from Asian industrial powerhouses to consumers in Europe and North America.

The recession has barely dented the trade. This Christmas, most of our presents will have come by super-ship from the Far East; ships such as the Emma Maersk and her seven sisters Evelyn, Eugen, Estelle, Ebba, Eleonora, Elly and Edith Maersk.

Each is a quarter of a mile long and can carry up to 14,000 full-size containers on their regular routes from China to Europe......MORE

Not Just Tides and Earth Movement but Markets May Be Determined by Moon Phases

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It always has seemed that the markets are irrational and perhaps we can blame it on the moon. Grant


IMPLODING equities, exploding credit default swaps, soaring gold and slumping oil -- if, at any time over the past 18 months, it seemed that markets were in the grip of lunacy, it may be because investors are, technically, lunatics.

Source: The Australian

Posted at Blacklisted News

The market mayhem since the global financial meltdown began in 2008 has provided fertile soil for proponents of a branch of investment theory which holds that market cycles move in phase with the Moon.

Now, backed with decades of data and behaviour that can no longer be explained by purely rational analysis, the lunar theory has slipped into the mainstream.

In a piece of research that involved 14 of its senior analysts from across five leading financial centres scrutinising data from 32 leading indices over several decades, Macquarie Securities has arrived at a startling discovery: the two days on either side of the new lunar month represent most of the positive returns on equity markets for the next four weeks.

"Using data since 1988 for a wide variety of indices," the report concluded, "it is quite clear that a strong surge in returns can be seen leading into the turn of the (lunar) month."

The analysts are quick to dismiss the idea that the theory applies only to markets in Asia -- a part of the world where belief in the lunar theory, especially in Hong Kong and Japan, is better established.

"The effect is not just an Asian effect, it happens globally," the Macquarie report said.

"Of the 32 markets we examined, all showed higher than average returns around the turn of the (lunar) month ... and for many of the markets, the average return for the rest of the month was below, or close to, zero."

Equity markets, it seems, act as a particularly sensitive barometer for the invisible impact of lunar cycles on human psychology -- an influence that has been widely assumed for centuries, but never solidly proven by science.

Macquarie points to two academic studies, which found that returns around the new moon are nearly double that of the corresponding full moon phase.

Using MSCI index data from the same 32 equity bourses and tracking decades of data, the Macquarie report found that: "In many markets, a very clear increase in average returns can be seen leading into the lunar new month."

The results, the analysis said, showed that without exception every market showed a very slight increase in the average return over the new moon period.

Other brokerage firms have latched on to parts of the lunar theory. Analysts at CLSA recently pointed out to clients that the recent near-collapse of the global credit and financial system was presaged by the lunar cycle.

As markets teetered on the brink of oblivion in 2008, the true panic began exactly on the 27th day of the seventh lunar cycle. Eerily, that same phase marked the height of panic during the great market crashes of 1857, 1907, 1929, 1987 and 1997.

The Macquarie report, which acknowledges that investors are unlikely to adapt their strategies to fit the new research, concludes that the relevance of the theory is "probably slightly more powerful than, say, betting that good value stocks outperform in the long run".

Watch Interview: Passangers Subdued Terrorist Suspect on US Jet

Source: CNN

Sun and Moon Trigger Temors in San Andreas Fault

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Some believe that the moon effects quakes, this seems to give some credence to that view.

Grant

Link to earthquakes unclear, but tremors seem to increase stress on shallower fracture zone

The faint tug of the sun and moon on the San Andreas Fault stimulates tremors deep underground, suggesting that the rock 15 miles below is lubricated with highly pressurized water that allows the rock to slip with little effort, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists.

Source: Eureka Alert

"Tremors seem to be extremely sensitive to minute stress changes," said Roland Bürgmann, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science. "Seismic waves from the other side of the planet triggered tremors on the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Washington state after the Sumatra earthquake last year, while the Denali earthquake in 2002 triggered tremors on a number of faults in California. Now we also see that tides – the daily lunar and solar tides – very strongly modulate tremors."

In a paper appearing in the Dec. 24 issue of the journal Nature, UC Berkeley graduate student Amanda M. Thomas, seismologist Robert Nadeau of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and Bürgmann argue that this extreme sensitivity to stress – and specifically to shearing stress along the fault – means that the water deep underground is under extreme pressure.

"The big finding is that there is very high fluid pressure down there, that is, lithostatic pressure, which means pressure equivalent to the load of all rock above it, 15 to 30 kilometers (10 to 20 miles) of rock," Nadeau said. "Water under very high pressure essentially lubricates the rock, making the fault very weak."

Though tides raised in the Earth by the sun and moon are not known to trigger earthquakes directly, they can trigger swarms of deep tremors, which could increase the likelihood of quakes on the fault above the tremor zone, the researchers say. At other fault zones, such as at Cascadia, swarms of tremors in the ductile zone deep underground correlate with slip at depth as well as increased stress on the shallower "seismogenic zone," where earthquakes are generated. The situation on the San Andreas Fault is not so clear, however.

"These tremors represent slip along the fault 25 kilometers (15 miles) underground, and this slip should push the fault zone above in a similar pattern," Bürgmann said. "But it seems like it must be very subtle, because we actually don't see a tidal signal in regular earthquakes. Even though the earthquake zone also sees the tidal stress and also feels the added periodic behavior of the tremor below, they don't seem to be very bothered."

Nevertheless, said Nadeau, "It is certainly in the realm of reasonable conjecture that tremors are stressing the fault zone above it. The deep San Andreas Fault is moving faster when tremors are more active, presumably stressing the seismogenic zone, loading the fault a little bit faster. And that may have a relationship to stimulating earthquake activity."

Seismologists were surprised when tremors were first discovered more than seven years ago, since the rock at that depth – for the San Andreas Fault, between 15 and 30 kilometers (10 to 20 miles) underground – is not brittle and subject to fracture, but deformable, like peanut butter. They called them non-volcanic tremors to distinguish them from tremors caused by fluid – water or magma – fracturing and flowing through rock under volcanoes. It was not clear, however, what caused the non-volcanic tremors, which are on the order of a magnitude 1 earthquake.

To learn more about the source of these tremors, UC Berkeley seismologists began looking for tremors five years ago in seismic recordings from the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas Fault obtained from sensitive bore-hole seismometers placed underground as part of the UC Berkeley's High-Resolution Seismic Network. Using eight years of tremor data, Thomas, Bürgmann and Nadeau correlated tremor activity with the effects of the sun and moon on the crust and with the effects of ocean tides, which are driven by the moon.

They found the strongest effect when the pull on the Earth from the sun and moon sheared the fault in the direction it normally breaks. Because the San Andreas Fault is a right-lateral strike-slip fault, the west side of the fault tends to break north-northwestward, dragging Los Angeles closer to San Francisco.

"When shear stress on a plane parallel to the San Andreas Fault most encourages slipping in its normal slip direction is when we see the maximum tremor rate," Bürgmann said. "The stress is many, many orders of magnitude less than the pressure down there, which was really, really surprising. You essentially could push it with your hand and it would move."

In fact, the shear stress from the sun, moon and ocean tides amount to around 100 Pascals, or one-thousandth atmospheric pressure, whereas the pressure 25 kilometers underground is on the order of 600 megaPascals, or 6 million times greater.

Nadeau and colleagues reported earlier this year that earthquakes in 2003 and 2004 near the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas Fault increased both tremor activity and stress on the fault itself.

In addition, Nadeau noted, other scientists have shown small tidal effects on tremors in the Cascadia subduction zone, with increased amplitude during certain periods, though they were unable to distinguish between tugs along the fault and tugs across, or normal to, the fault.

"We were really able to tighten the nuts down on whether it is a normal-fault stress change or an along-fault stress change that is stimulating the tremor," he said. The fact that tremors are triggered by along-fault shear stress "means that fluids are probably the explanation."

It may be that tremors only occur on faults where fluid is trapped deep underground with no cracks or fractures allowing it to squirt away, Nadeau added. That may explain why tremors are not observed on other faults, despite intense searching.

"There is still all lot to learn about tremor and earthquakes in fault zones," he said. "The fact that we find tremors adjacent to a locked fault, like the one at Parkfield, makes you think there are some more important relationships going on here, and we need to study it more."

Saudi Arabia : Television Host Sentenced to Death for Sorcery (Making Predictions)

The Kingdom's justice is absurd. What else can I say.

Grant

allgov - One need not be a practicing witch or warlock to run the risk of being charged with sorcery in Saudi Arabia. Case in point: Ali Hussain Sibat, a Lebanese television host who occasionally offered predictions on his show.

Posted at Phantoms and Monsters

In May, Sibat traveled from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia to make his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and after being spotted by the kingdom’s religious police, was arrested on charges of committing sorcery. Officials convinced Sibat to confess to talking to spirits—on the promise that he would be freed—and then used his confession to convict him in court last month. He’s now been sentenced to death.

According to Amnesty International, arrests such as Sibat’s have been on the rise in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. Others charged with sorcery included a Saudi man accused of smuggling a book about witchcraft into the country, an Asian man accused of using his powers to solve marital disputes, and another man for trying to learn magic.

Of the 140+ people on death row in Saudi Arabia, 104 are foreign nationals. The last known execution for sorcery was that of Egyptian Mustafa Ibrahim on November 2, 2007. A pharmacist, he was accused of defacing a copy of the Qur’an.

Iran Iraq Tensions and Protests

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Border Tensions

AMARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi and Iranian forces are dug in on either side of a disputed inactive oil well in the sensitive border area, with Iraqis vowing to fight if necessary to fend off another occupation of the well by Iranian soldiers.

Iraqi troops say they will defend the well, where Iranian troops raised a flag for several days this month.

It is unclear how many troops are involved in the stand-off, but as many as 30 lightly armed

Iraqi troops usually occupy border outposts in sensitive areas, and up to 10 in other areas. Some 11 Iranian soldiers are stationed near the disputed well.

The seizure of the well, which Iraq says is part of its Fakka oilfield in southeast Maysan province, triggered protests from the government in Baghdad and caused a rise in prices on jittery world oil markets.

The Iranian forces have since pulled back, but Iraq says they are still on its territory, stirring echoes of the border dispute that led to the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, in which about 1 million people died.

"These wells in the Fakka region are Iraqi, and we will defend them to the last drop of blood," said Brigadier-General Razak Abdul Hassan of the Iraqi border guards at Fakka.....Source: Reuters

Iranian Protests

Iran (AP) - Iranian security forces beat protesters in central Tehran on Saturday, a sign of mounting tensions ahead of planned opposition rallies to mark a religious festival and the death of a dissident cleric a week ago, a reformist Web site said.

The Rah-e-Sabz site said forces, including the elite Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary Basijis, used tear gas and pepper spray in an attempt to disperse demonstrators, and broke the windows of cars that were honking horns in protest.

It said protests occurred in at least three areas: Imam Hossein Square, Pol-e-Choobi and Ferdowsi Square.

The report could not be independently confirmed because the Iranian government has banned foreign media from covering opposition protests......Source: My Way News